the heavier showers pushing across the bay. we have on the back side of this a few more showers developing back towards reston and leesburg. dulles 70, nice and warm, humid start to your day. you're really going to notice that humidity again as you head out this morning. bwi marshal71. your forecast for today, lots of clouds for the first half of your day. we are going to warm it up again, but by later this afternoon some sunshine breaks out and you're going to notice on a northwest wind, the humidity starting to push back a little bit. so more comfortable air moving in today and tonight. i'll have more details on that in just a few minutes. tony and allison, back upstairs to you. >> tucker, thank you very much. to the presidential race now, country music star trace adkins is appearing in a campaign ad tonight with mitt romney outside of charlottesville shenandoah valley and president obama campaigns in colorado and ohio. he'll be in virginia tomorrow. >> both are trying to

capitalize on any points scored in last night's presidential debate. nicole collins is live on capitol hill to tell us more about what happened last night. good morning to you, nicole. >>reporter: good morning, allison and tony. last night's debate was not full of zingers as it was expected to be. all of the attacks were squarely focused on policy. the candidates were cordial, but mitt romney's aggressive approach appeared to put president obama on defense. >> going forward with the status quo is not going to cut it for the american people who are struggling today. >>reporter: when i -- >> when i walked into the oval office, i had more than a trillion dollar deficit greeting me and we know where it came from. >>reporter: the debate, held at the university of denver was respectful and devoid of any major entertaining moments. it focused on tense domestic issues like taxes, social security and medicare and the role of the federal government. the president said romney's ideas are not specific enough. >> his running mate, congressman ryan put forward a

budget that reflects many of the principles that governor romney has talked about, and it wasn't very detailed. this seems to be a trend. >>reporter: and romney repeatedly accused the president of misrepresenting his positions. >> i got five boys. i'm used to people saying something that's not always true, but just keep on repeating and ultimately hoping i'll believe it, but that is not the case, all right? i will not reduce the taxes paid by high income americans. >>reporter: that poll -- in polls taken after the debate show mitt romney across the board is considered the winner. this is the first of three presidential debates. the next one takes place on october 16th. tony and allison. >> nicole, thank you very much. coming up at 9:30, mr. martin is learning what young adults thought of last night's debate. he is live once again at american university for "campaign u." tony. the company and brand known as kitchen aid is apologizing for an offensive political tweet. the post which has now been removed was sent out from the

company's official account during the presidential debate. it read obama's grandma even knew it was going to be bad. she died three days before he became president. the tweet was sent after mr. obama referenced his grandmother during the debate while talking about medicare and social security. sin thee i can't soledad, kitchen aid senior director of marketing later posted from the company's account, apologizing to the prsident. she said the tweet was "carelessly sent in error by a member of our twitter team who, needless to say, won't be tweeting for us any more." a voter watchdog group says it has uncovered voter fraud in maryland. the group election integrity maryland claims it found evidence that some people registered to vote using the names of dead people or registered to vote twice in two different states. the group is not accusing the state board of elections of fraud, but says the problem does need to be corrected. state elections officials say if fraud is found, the information will be given to the state prosecutor's office.

making headlines this morning, a rare form of meningitis has health officials concerned. already sickening dozens and killing two people in maryland and virginia. the cdc says patients contracted the infection after receiving steroid injections for back pain. so far 26 cases have been reported nationwide, four of them fatal. more cases are expected. the steroid drug made in massachusetts has since been recalled. the search continues this morning for the person who viciously beat a 72-year-old man. kendarlao guzman is in critical condition. his two men found him unconscious near a dumpster outside his apartment complex on dparland avenue in silver spring tuesday morning. guzman headed out at 8:00 p.m. on monday to go shopping and never made it home. police think robbery may have been the motive. new this morning police need your help finding a missing 15-year-old. take a look at your screen.

this is derrantee hebron. police say he was last seen around 2:00 p.m. monday around the wheaton community center. he hasn't been seen or heard from since. if you have any information, take a good look at this picture, if you have any information, you're asked to call montgomery county police. also in fairfax county, the search is on for a missing 17-year-old, missing since monday morning. police say that he vanished after dropping his brother off at school. fox 5's melanie aldwick joins us live now with more details. melanie. >>reporter: well, allison, brian glenn's family says they didn't realize he was missing until he didn't come home from football practice on monday night. they say that the school, w.t. woodson high school did send out one of those automatic notices that he was absent from classes on monday, but it went to a wrong phone number. now police are looking at surveillance video from this dunkin donuts here in fairfax circle because a receipt from this store was found in brian's car. it was date stamped 8:00 a.m. monday. now, family and friends did help police with a search. brian glenn has been missing

for three days now going on four. they combed woods and paths in fasas park. that's a baseball field on picket road. that's where brian's bw jetta was found in the parking lot. inside friends also found an empty box from dunkin donuts along with pieces of jolly rancher candy and wrappers. brian's father says the radio was also tuned to a station that brian he believes wouldn't listen to, and that's why the dplen family thinks that brie -- the glenn family thinks that perhaps brian was not alone. >> he just doesn't eat doughnuts and he's not a morning person, he doesn't eat a lot of food in the morning. i don't think he knows how to get there by himself because we just never go there. >> it is odd that he wouldn't contact us because he's very conscientious about letting us know if he's going to be running late somewhere, so this is uncharacteristic for him. >>reporter: now, police do say that brian's disappearance is not being investigated as suspicious, but they do call the case unusual. yesterday they also had out

helicopters and police dogs, but, still, as far as we know, no trace of brian. now, his family just wants him to come home. they have hired a private investigator. they say they really don't want to second guess police, but they're a little bit concerned that brian's car was not impounded. they have it back at their house now. it hasn't been dusted for fingerprints and they also say that empty dunkin' donuts box has not been analyzed. a lot of pieces to try to tie together here, alan, and everyone just hoping that brian makes it home safely. >> melanie, thank you. lots of questions in this one. thank you. well, in sports another milestone for the nats. >> dave ross is back in studio with more on the end of a great season and the push to the playoffs. dave. >> tony and allison, it sure has. it's been an incredible season so far for your washington nationals, but for the first time since the team became the nationals, they're set to begin their second season. yes, we're talking about post- season october baseball in d.c. ain't it sweet?

yeah, it is. we've been talking about it all day. how about teddy crossing the finish line for the first time? speaking of first, there he is, wins his first-ever race. chalk up number one oned board. put this on the board, ryan zimmerman, the first batter after teddy won his first race. you can't script it any better, people, we're not making this stuff up. and then michael morris, a little icing on the cake. he's going opposite field, showing his power and he's going to smile, like teddy, look at that big smile. all smiles in d.c. these days. nats win 5-1, 98 wins, that's a team record. and they are the top seed in the playoffs. ryan zimmerman, your thoughts, please. >> i think being the team with the best overall record is a huge accomplishment and if we take care of business in the first round, i think it's an advantage in the second round with the longer series, but, you know, i think it's a feeling that none of us -- not none of us, but a lot of us haven't had the chance to feel before, so it was cool.

>> it was pretty cool indeed. we'll find who the nats play tomorrow. st. louis travels to atlanta for a one-game wildcard matchup. the winner will host the nats for games one and two of the national league divisional series which begins on sunday. so, tony and allison, very exciting times indeed. kind of that quirky scheduling that they're going to have to go on the road for the first two and then if there's a game five, they'll play the last three in d.c. hopefully it won't go that far, but i don't like it. >> i don't really like it. not sure why they did it, but we'll talk later. >> we'll do that off camera. >> speaking of teddy, which, of course, was very, very exciting. tony actually joined us in studio earlier this morning. here's the video. he was so excited he was spinning in his chair. teddy and nats' chief operating officer andy pepper told us teddy won't hang it up ter this one victory, he'll continue to race and there will be presidents' races during the playoffs. there were some questions about that, so there you go.

yay teddy. >> he's a happy president. well, parents work hard to keep their kids safe, right? but some dangers lurk where you might not see them. >> coming up, how a local father tracked down an internet predator who was talking to his son. and this father's mission to make other parents aware of predators. we'll be right back with tim loda. right now it'9:10. we'll return.  [ male annououncer ] we the people, the middle class, who move our country forward, work hard, raise families, and keep america strong. but mitt romney's budget plan will hurt the middle class, s on the average family by up to $2,000, raise families, and keep america strong. while giving a tax break of $250,000 to multimillionaires. doesn't mitt romney understand we can't rebuild america by tearing down the middle class. priorities usa action is responsible for the content of this advertising.

barack obama and the liberals already have. to pay for government-run healthcare, you'll pay higher taxes and more for your medicine. and their plan includes a trillion dollars in higher taxes. even on the middle class. mitt romney and common sense conservatives will cut taxes on the middle class. and they'll close loopholes for millionaires. obama and his liberal allies? we can't afford four more years. [ romney] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

police in springfield, virginia are investigating yet another attack on a teenager. they're trying to determine if this one is connected to several other attacks. a 15-year-old girl was walking on hibling avenue near exmore street about 7:15 tuesday night when she was fondled from behind. now, this is the fourth similar attack in the area in the last month. all of the victims describe the attacker as having a black beard and wearing a red ball cap. tony. well, allison, all it took was a phone bill and fear that his child could be in trouble

for a local man to take action. tim loda appears on "the rikki lake show" today talking a tool developed to help parents with warning signs that their children may be attracting online predators. tim joins us in studio today to describe what happened to his own son four years ago. it is quite the story. thank you very much for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >> tell us what happened with your son. >> four years ago my son -- >> 14 years old at the time? >> yeah, 14 years old, he basically accepted a friend request from a friend of a friend on a social networking site, something millions of kids do everyday. turns out this person wasn't an ordinary friend, he was a 42- year-old middle school teacher, la crosse coach and child predator. he proceeded to go through a process of trying to develop a mentoring-type relationship with my son, ultimately asked had him to meet face to face, asked him for inappropriate pictures. fortunately my son had the common sense to say you can be creepy, you are creepy, go

away. and when this came to my attention, because i happened to get a phone bill and i saw some numbers i didn't recognize and i started asking my son about it, we took it straight to the police. >> now, your son was initially reluctant to talk to you about it because he's a teenager, it's his online world, right? >> taking that one step further, he had previously come to dad and said, dad, can i have facebook. i said, well, we're not ready for that yet. and so his dilemma was do i go to dad and ask for him help with this problem or risk getting myself in trouble. >> you did your own investigating. you went to the police. >> yeah. the police said, look, we don't have the resources to figure out who this person is until something bad really happens to your son. come back and see us if something bad happens. so given that this person had had told my son that he was likely to come and just get him -- >> he threatened him. >> he threatened him basically. so i started a process of investigating who this person was, looking at his social profiles. he had stolen identities of deceased people to create phone

bills and phone accounts. ultimately we tracked the person down and we brought that information to the police. they arrested him and he's now serving eight years in prison. >> he was indeed a predator. >> he was. he had had been raping kids around the d.c. and baltimore area for years. >> your son is fine? >> he's fine. >> your message for other parents out there -- you have tips. why don't we go through the tips because, first of all, you looked at that phone bill which is great. let's talk about some of the tips here. >> sure. in today's world, kids do so much texting, and they use their phone so much that parents don't always see the face of their children's friends, and so asking questions when they see phone numbers that they don't recognize is critical. the second piece is in today's world, phones are computers. these smart phones are computers and parents already know that they shouldn't be allowing computers in the bedrooms and so forth, they should be in public areas of the house. same thing applies for smart phones. >> right. and we just had something on the screen there, kids -- it's

tough, but parents have to be vigilant about this because there are -- you know, half our stories this morning have been about predators, essentially. >> yeah. >> if a kid closes the computer when you walk in the room. >> flip the top. look, we developed -- the reality for parents there's an information gap and for law enforcement. so you know kids designed to give parents information before a crisis happens and sometimes the crisis aren't that big a deal, but parents having the information pro actively is really what this is all about. >> particularly in the case of online predators, as you found in this case, there's a process that they go through trying to get that kid comfortable. >> doesn't happen overnight. and for parents who have friended their children online, they should assume that the predators online know that, and they know how to get around mom and dad simply being their child's friend online. so without a parental intelligence system really kind of doing some of the work for mom and dad, there's no way they can know for sure that

their kids are not in fact at risk. >> you and your brother cofounded something called uknowkids.com. tell me about that and what that does. >> the service is an online and mobile service that parents can use to monitor activity like facebook, myspace, twitter, instagram and text text messaging. it takes the ton and tons of data out there of who kids are texting and it simplifies it to make parenting easier, so those engaged parents that want to be in the loop, in the know, they don't have to work so hard to do it and they're able to get alerts and warnings proactively when their kids are heading potentially in the wrong direction. >> with this particular service you can do a couple of things. there's some free services provided or you can pay -- is it $10 a month for expanded services essentially? >> right. we make it possible so that every parent has the ability to monitor their kids' online activity for free. it applies to facebook monitoring which pretty much every kid is using today. and so that's always free. and for $10 after their free trial, they can use a bunch of

other features that we've already discussed. >> it is u know it. -- not u know it, uknowkids.com. we will link it to our website at myfoxd c.com so you can check it out and tim woda will be on "the rikki lake show" today. glad everything is okay with your kids and glad you are vigilant with it. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> allison. >> my new hero. thank you very much. local landmark lands on the endangered list. we're going to tell you where next. also how to make sure your friends see your post but you'll have to pay for it. facebook's new promotion ahead. first, though, let's check back in with holly. good morning. >>reporter: hey, allison. i know you've heard about the running of the bulls. well, we've got the running of the goats this morning, all as the flower hill string band plays in the background and it's all going on at the montgomery county national historical park where they are gearing up for the 22nd annual

harvest festival. we'll show you firsthand why you're going to want to make it part of your weekend plans. it's all live later. excellent, excellent. hello there. hello.

i'm barack obama, and i approve this message. these appliances could have been made here in america. but a company called global tech maximized profits by paying its workers next to nothing... under sweatshop conditions in china. when mitt romney led bain, they saw global tech as a good investment... even knowing that the firm promoted its practice of exploiting... low-wage labor to its investors. mitt romney - tough on china? since when?

washington's pennsylvania avenue which is also referred to as america's main street, of course, makes the new list of the nation's endangered landscapes. the nonprofit cultural landscape foundation says the area connecting the capitol and the white house is slowly falling into disrepair. the group cited the removal of some trees, water fountains that rarely work and broken park benches. officials say preservation and ressorration efforts are under way. tony. allison, facebook is debuting a new feature in the u.s. that would allow users to pay to promote their posts. the posts would then appear higher in your friends' updates. facebook says it has tried the new feature in new zealand and 20 other countries.

the company still stands by its "free and always will be" motto, saying that the cost only comes to those who want it. well, a lot of schools won't let students carry around their cell phones, but now there maybe new option. we'll introduce you to the cell phone valet ahead. first, the impact of last night's debate on young adults. >>reporter: we're here at campaign u with the professor and with the students. we're talking about the debate last night, the winners, losers and big bird. how much it all mattered. we'll tell you all about it as fox 5 morning news continues. that the children need... on a day-to-day basis. anncr: question seven will help. the department of legislative services says question seven... will mean hundreds of millions of dollars... for schools...from gaming revenues that would have... gone to other states. and independent audits will guarantee the money... goes where it's supposed to. krystal conwell: i think people should vote for question...

seven because i think it will be a great benefit to children.

it's a sign of the times. get this. some students in new york city actually use valets to store their cell phones while they're in school. it costs $1 a day. kids drop them off at a truck parked nearby. sounds awfully fishy to me. cell phones and other devices such as i-pods and ipadsds are banned in all new york city public schools, but there have been some safety issues.

one truck parked near a school in the bronx got held up this summer and some 200 students lost their phones. >> what about lockers? they can't just put them in their lockers in school? >> maybe not. >> they maybe aren't allowed on school property. seems like that would be better, but harder to police maybe. >> maybe the school should just hold them in the office. >> what's to prevent -- you know, tucker and i could paint a truck cell phone valet. >> wait. wait. you're giving away a good idea here. honestly, we make a living, right? >> times are tough. [ laughter ] >> sorry. there you go. >> you could say there are some pitfalls with that plan. >> yeah, i could see there would be some problems. late get to your weather forecast. it's still cloudy and feels kind of gloomy out. but actually we -- we'll see a today. improving forecast, less humidity on the horizon. not quite yet, but a little later. 73 now in washington, 75 in

annapolis. let's see, winchester, good morning, 74 degrees. salice bury, 77. so we are really warming up again, particularly east of washington as temperatures quickly jump into the 70s. we're thinking low 80s today, we made it to the low 80s yesterday. any sunshine at all and we'll probably see the temperatures jump up into the low 80s. a few leftover showers, a few stragglers here working down towards montgomery county and prince george's county and one or two sprinkles in the mountains out west. so we're not quite done with the rain showers just yet, but the trend will be to get the showers out of here shortly and then eventually the cloud cover too. see the back edge of our frontal system? it is finally making some progress east. you can see it now pushing into west virginia. after a morning of cloudiness, i think we'll get some breaks in the clouds. and by late afternoon we'll likely be partly to mostly sunny across the region. here's the best part, winds are going to pick up out of the north and west and that's going to allow some dryer air to finally get in here. so after a few days with humid conditions, things should start to feel a little more

comfortable around here later today. still going to be warm, 82. check out the winds, northwest five to 10, that will be later today as we start to see the sunshine break out. after early clouds, we'll get late day sun. could be another scattered shower or two for you the next hour or two and then i think we're done with the rain today. cooler and dryer overnight. lots of 50s if you're off to the north and west tomorrow morning, so it'll be a cooler overnight. here's your accuweather seven day. hey, tomorrow looks fantastic. friday looks good, but particularly this one. 80 with sunshine. 75 on saturday, late showers and storms, it's not going to rain all day on saturday, late showers and storms with a cold front that means business. check out your high on sunday, 61 degreesredskins game, mostly cloudy, could be a few showers around here. it's going to be cool for that game sunday afternoon. that's a look at your weather, tony and allison, back to you. >> tucker, thank you much. the first debate is now in the history books and no stern -- no stone was left unturned, from taxes to healthcare, the

candidates details their plans. >> who came out on top? we have campaign u this morning. >>reporter: this is all about the u, the campaign u and we're talking politics this morning. we're in the classroom with all the students and a professor lenny stienhorn talking about what happened last night at the debates. and, professor, the topics we're going to discuss today in class, clearly, the debate. >> the debate, the debate and the debate. has it changed the political narrative, what philosophies did they articulate last night, what about their facts? were they true to the facts? and who really came off better and more persuasively throughout that night. we're really going to try to figure this out and figure out its impact on the voters and the american people. >>reporter: any winners and losers in your eyes? because it seems the experts are saying that mitt romney was the clear winner. >> well, i think mitt romney came off as far more aggressive in this debate. the president seemed more passive. mitt romney sort of always wanted the last word, barack obama didn't answer some of mitt romney's criticisms, but when you actually assess some

takeaways, they were both in the weeds, they both stuck to details, there weren't any great sound bytes that people are going to remember and i think ultimately in the long run, this is going to sort of narrow the gap a little bit, change the narrative, give the press something else to talk about. so in that sense, it's going to help mitt romney. >>reporter: the big comment, though, was the big bird comment. that's going to get a lot of play this morning on the media. >> well, i think mitt romney has just lost the pbs vote, so who knows what that's going to mean in some of these battleground states. >>reporter: we're going to get some reaction from some of the students over here. the professor just told you guys what you're going to talk about in class this morning. your reaction to anything that you saw last night, comments, concerns, change your mind, anything. >> well, big bird for me was obviously the winner. i mean, he basically broke twitter. but the big loser in my opinion was definitely jim lehrer, though. i felt bad for the guy. i really sympathized with him.

>> what about you? >> what stuck out for me was the line of attack that obama decided to take against mitt romney. he didn't mention the 47% comments that he should have mentioned, didn't mention romney's job record in massachusetts when they started talking about jobs, didn't mention bain capital once. obama was on the defensive much more than he was on the offensive, didn't dispute mitt romney's $716 medicare claim which has some truth, accuracy debate to it. he had a full opportunity to do that and didn't do it. >> i myself was amazed last night. personally i went to the debate thinking, okay, i think mitt romney is going to do okay, but he seriously started to look at the camera when he did his personal narrative at the very beginning of the debate, i was, like, okay, i think he's got this. to me it looked like obama did not want to be there. he looked tired. he didn't look himself. >> i think a lot of people are saying mitt romney was the winner because he was very aggressive. he seemed a little angry to me, but i think that it was definitely helpful for him in that he didn't do poorly, so

it'll definitely change the narrative a little bit. >>reporter: now in the classroom now, the professor is going to be doing the teaching, i'm just asking the questions. approach about some of the issues you're bringing up and some othe things you're going to talk about in the classroom today. >> let me offer a counter narrative about something. president obama has been accused of being arrogant and aloof. he's now been criticized in this debate for sort of looking down and letting mitt romney sort of be the aggressor. did he accomplish it, even though the pundits aren't saying that, that he sort of stood back and didn't come off as too aloof, too arrogant with the american people or is that just favorable obama people reading into this? >> i actually think he did pull it off. he seemed very -- he seemed composed. he didn't seem oof, he didn't seem air ganlt. he didn't see profsorial, that's generally what the public describes him as. >> i have the opposite view.

i think he did come off prophsorial, he seemed aloof and arrogant in what mitt romney said. i think the absolute opposite. >> i would agree with ryan. politico did an article on the way obama was looking -- the way obama kept looking down and i think had he looked more at mitt romney it would have changed the narrative a bit. >>reporter: the last one, this is a wrap. >> i actually think he did pull it off. i think that he didn't seem too arrogant, especially compared to mitt romney who is very, like, in your face attacking. he seemed to kind of just be calmly explaining everything. >>reporter: cool. thank you, guys, very much for talking with us. we're going to stay here. we're going to be streaming live on the web. this is campaign u, the professor lenny stienhorn, they'll be talking politics throughout the class this morning, what went on last night. probably some more discussions about big bird, right? probably some more serious issues. that's a top topic. probably some more serious issues than big bird, but

they're going to be here and we're going to be here, so back to you in the studio. >> some very interesting insights. thank you very much. coming up next, his parents wanted him to be normal, but director tim burton spent muchof his childhood practicing skills that he uses today. >> known for his dark films, he's now behind the new movie "franken weany" and he tells movie reviewer kevin mccarthy why movie films have advantages. we'll be back. it's 9:36.

it's the buzz bin. director tim burton is known for comedies that can make audiences squirm as well as smile with his brand of humor, horror and just plain weirdness. >> he is pretty weird. his new movie, "frankenweenie," the title is even weird, it opens tomorrow and burton talked with movie reviewer kevin mccarthy about directing live actors versus directing an animated feature. >>reporter: what would be the hardest scene in this film to

shoot in live action, because short was in live action, what would be the toughest scene, what couldn't you do in live action that you did in this movie? >> there's a certain emotion you can get, that's the thing because the memories of, like, the real memories of me and your dog, it's so much more animated, you know, and it's so much more -- again, you can't necessarily get that in a live action. so i think it's just sort of the purity of the emotion of the dog as something that would have been difficult to get. >>reporter: i love a great dollly zoom vertigo shot and the one in the movie when he sees the frog legs for the firsme and that pull shot, how do you execute that shot the way you do and what did that do as a storytelling element? >> we just try to treat it not so much like -- a lot of animated movies are quite hyperactive and we tried to treat this more like a real movie and that was the thing. it was, like, you know, we thought of it almost in terms of a live action, so the kind

of shots we did, you know, we did sort of like you would do in a simple live action film. so that was the key. the tendency sometimes in animated movies to, you know, do lots of things and make it overly hyperactive and so we treated it like we were treating a live action. >>reporter: when you were younger and you were doing your 8milimeter films, were family trying to push normal things on you? >> my dad had been a professional baseball player, and so he got injured, but he still worked for the parks and recreation. i think, you know, even though wasn't good at sports really i was okay and i enjoyed doing it. i think doing physical things, you know, it's good, and so -- but it wasn't myfortee, i enjoyed watching monster moving or making little movies probably more than i enjoy sports, but i was glad that i -- you know, sometimes it's good to be pushed into things that you're not good at. >>reporter: if you could live

in the world of one of your films for one day, just did in and live with your characters, who would you want to hang out with? >> for me this one is good because it makes suburbia -- even though there were horror elements to it, but it seemed suburban black and white and seeing this world, i actually find quite appealing. >> very interesting. >> i can't wait to see it. >> so much work to do that. kevin is going to be with us tomorrow morning in the 6:00 hour with his review of "frankenweenie." well, the leaves are starting to change and the flavors of pumpkin and apple are taking over. this weekend if you're looking for a way to celebrate fall, holly is previewing this year's harvest fest. she's live in montgomery county. >> yep. that's where food, crafts and contests are taking place. you will also find live music from the blower hill string band. that's coming up next. before you spend a lot of money for a new table piece, derek is here to show us how you can use flowers in your own back yard to make a great arrangement. we'll be right back with that

and more. are you ready ? share everything by turning your smartphone into a mobile hotspot for up to 8 wifi-enabled devices at no extra charge. like the new droid razr m by motorola only $99.99.

100% new. ♪ 100% greek. 100% mmm... ♪ oh wow, that is mmm... ♪ in fact it's so mmm you might not believe it's a hundred calories. well ok then, new yoplait greek 100.

it is so good. ♪ barack obama and the liberals already have. to pay for government-run healthcare, you'll pay higher taxes and more for your medicine. and their plan includes a trillion dollars in higher taxes. even on the middle class. mitt romney and common sense conservatives will cut taxes on the middle class. and they'll close loopholes for millionaires. obama and his liberal allies? we can't afford four more years.

[ romney] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. not only is fall a dpornlings time of the year with all the -- gorgeous time of the year with all the color changes, but it's also a great time for family fun. >> that's right. this saturday montgomery parks is holding the 22nd annual harvest festival. holly morris joins us live at the agricultural history farm park in derwood with a look at the events. and they are numerous. hey, holly. >>reporter: they are numerous. this really is just the perfect fall time event for your family, no matter what the ages of your kids or even if you don't have kids at all because this event is outside, it's in a magnificent setting, they have lots of different activities that are activities that you usually don't get to see or partake in and it is paul of this harvest festival. ted trey is the ag farm supervisor, that's the official title that is says on his business card, but really they call him the farm king.

good morning to you. >> good morning. >>reporter: how does one become the farm king? >> you just supervise the whole farm. om the former boss. >>reporter: comes with a lot of responsibility one would think because you have a lot to take care of it. >> yes, ma'am, it's a 500-acre farm, we have a lot of ground for people to walk on, horse trails and stuff like this. of course we have the harvest festival which brings in 3,000 to 5,000 extra guests. >>reporter: really, 3,000 to 5,000 people on one day, that's a lot. tell me everything that's going on come saturday. you seen the saw mill, that's also a big draw. we also have the corn maze, that's also included and the sheep dog demonstration, there'll be hay rides, all sorts of games and stuff for the kids to play and adults to play too, and crafters. it's a real full day. there's a tremendous amount of stuff for people to come see. >>reporter: i thought i heard that you were out there practicing your pumpkin rolling. >> yes, i do practice that. >>reporter: he's a ringer, if you see him in the race, look out for him. really, what do people get out of coming here and just being

at a place like this? >> the farm is just a wonderful place. you can come here any day of the week. it is a park, it's open everyday of the week, but when you come to an event, there's a lot of camaraderie with all the groups of people coming together and it's just a good day, a great day to come to the harvest fest. >>reporter: the park has never looked so good and it's never sounded so good and that has a whole lot to do with this dpreup right here. this is the flower hill string band. david is their spokesperson. good morning. >> good morning. >>reporter: tell us about the band. >> there's five of us. there's one missing today. we've been playing together for four or five years. we love coming here, this is our favorite place to play. >>reporter: some are related right here? >> my daughter melissa, mike gairice and his daughter betsey and this is a stray we picked up. >>reporter: just a stray you picked up along the way. you're adding to the group greatly. you guys also play in and around the area? >> we sure do. we play at concert series in the summer, and we're actually

going to be playing at the ki displ zie center soon and you're welcome to go. >>reporter: thank you for the invitation. you all are welcome to come out on this saturday, but right now we're going to be treated to our own little concert, so let's head on over to the flower hill string band.

>>reporter: the flower hill spring band, just one of two live music groups that playing out here come saturday. the time of the festival is 11:00 to 4:00 here at the agricultural history park, the montgomery county park locate inside derwood in montgomery county. it's the 22nd year for the harvest festival. as we've mentioned all morning long, there's lots of different activities that will be going on, but it's hard to beat this on a thursday morning, allison. love it. >> holly, thank you. well, you don't have to spend a penny, not one penny to

make a great floral arrange and fall centerpiece. our garden expert derek thomas with thomas landscapes is here to show us how you get it done. >> good morning. >> i'm going to be working today. >> the thinksle is a bit -- can be a bit mean. this is what mother nature is giving us this time of year and all of this stuff like i said, i collected out in the edge of roads and the woodlands. >> it's growing. >> it's growing wild, except for the peppers and some of the other things. also, i just wanted to let people know, ideas like this come to me from folks following me on twitter. >> how do we follow you on twitter? >> thomas garden guy. but something like this with a little bit of spray paint, this is queen anne's lace and thistle can turn into these wonderful coppery colors. i've popped some red and green onto the queen anne's lace. what we want to use is -- say,

you have a little tabletop arrangement you want to do. you can take some of the grass you have in your garden, layer that in, and, allison, what we're going to do is start bringing this dried high drank a, this one -- high drankia. this one -- hydrangea. this last one we're going to turn the opposite way just to hold everything together and you've instantly created a great fall centerpiece. that's amazing. >> what about -- now, these i did spend a little bit on this, this was on clearance, i got it for, like, $7. peppers this time of the year are something that we have in abundance. i'm going to pop in a little bit of this queen anne's lace. >> you want some peppers? >> yeah, a little bit of peers and we're just -- peppers and we're just going to weave that in like that. the other thing mother nature is giving us this time of year is a lot of fabulous fall foliage. let me have one more of those.

there we go. and wa we can then do -- you know, the foliage -- and one of the things i like to do with the foliage is to use a little bit of glue spray because that helps them stay put. and, allison, you can help me just pop some of these in here. >> now, glue spray, just spray it on it? >> yeah. what you do with the glue spray is you actually want to spray it right at where the leaf joins the stem, just to make sure that it stays put. this is another nice inspirational, and then the bigger one, we're going to sit this one over here, allison. the bigger one that i want to do is actually going to start off with some cattails. now, i was able to get these. they usually grow in marshy land, so if you're going to go get some cattails, try to find a spot where, you know, there's a marshy land and perhaps take your golashes or your boots, maybe pop three of those in, and try to work with odd numbers, even numbers tend to

look a little bit more contropical waved. now, this time of the year, and this has started popping up at garden centers, allison. this is goldenrod and this is another native plant. what we're going to do is i'm going to give you one of these to put in there for a little bit of color. i'm going to add a couple of these in there. i think maybe we should do one more of the goldenrod. >> let me do it, derek. >> there we go. and then we're going to start adding some of the thistle and that's why you have the gloves. the thistle, like i said, we've painted. be creative with this. take some things out of your back yard. maybe if you live ajoining a protected area, you -- ad joining a protected area, you don't want to dig up the plants, but cutting the tops off is not going to hurt the plants next year, and then perhaps, you know, the berries we've got -- this is nandina

domesty ca. then you pop that in there like that. let's put a couple more thistles in and then one for a little pop of foliage in the middle. we can add that. >> and height too, try to do varying heights? i do know that. >> varying heights. and the cattails, that's another thing you want to spray the glue on because they tend to -- this is a seed pod and what will happen is in your indoor environment, the heat will make them want to disburse those seed. >> derek, we're out of time, but you're going to be on with holly next week? >> check us out next week, we have a great extravaganza with holly. >> we'll be right back. thanks, derek. 

tomorrow is friday, time for another "ask allison."

if you have a question you'd like answered, head to myfoxdc.com and click on the morning tab. time to say hello to mr. big. >> he looks scared. >> intimidating. mr. big, aka biggy in greenbelt maryland, he is the pet of the day. his owner writes, biggy wants to know, did you see rg3? he's my dog. thanks for sharing your photo. if you'd like your pet to be chosen, share your photo on myfoxdc.com. >> those little dogs think they're big dogs. >> they do, yes. >> mr. bigs, when you take your owner out for a walk, there you go, starting to see some breaks in the clouds. that will be the trend around here. more sunshine later today and finally a little less humidity by later this afternoon as the wind shifts out of the north and west. so we'll get the cloud cover out of here. there might be leftover cloud cover, but partial sunshine, 82. want to mention saturday night, early sunday, real blast of cool october air, only 61 on sunday, so get ready for some